Custody Evaluations When There Are Allegations of Domestic Violence: Practices, Beliefs and Recommendations of Professional Evaluators in New York City, 1997-2009

Resource Information

The work Custody Evaluations When There Are Allegations of Domestic Violence: Practices, Beliefs and Recommendations of Professional Evaluators in New York City, 1997-2009 represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in Bowdoin College Library. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

Custody Evaluations When There Are Allegations of Domestic Violence: Practices, Beliefs and Recommendations of Professional Evaluators in New York City, 1997-2009

Creator

• Davis, Michael S

Contributor

• Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor]
• Fields, Marjory D.
• O'Sullivan, Chris S.
• Susser, Kim
• Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor]

Author

• Fields, Marjory D.
• Susser, Kim
• Davis, Michael S
• O'Sullivan, Chris S.

Contributor

• Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor]
• Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor]

Subject

• child custody
• child custody hearings
• courts
• divorce
• domestic assault
• domestic violence
• evaluation
• family courts
• family relationships
• family violence
• intimate partner violence
• legal aid
• parents
• psychological evaluation
• social services
• social work
• spouse abuse
• survey
• violence
• Custody of children
• Domestic relations courts
• Families
• Family violence
• Social service
• abuse
• admin

Genre

• survey
• admin

Summary

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of the beliefs and investigative practices of psychologists, psychiatrists, and social workers who had been appointed by a court to evaluate families in disputed custody cases when there were allegations of domestic violence. The research team conducted a Case Review study (Part 1) and administered an Evaluator Survey to corresponding case evaluators (Part 2) between August 2007 and December 2009. The case review study was implemented through four private non-profit legal services agencies in New York City that provide free legal representation to domestic violence victims in civil proceedings including custody and visitation litigation. A total of 69 cases involving custody or visitation issues that were litigated and resolved between 1997 and 2007 were identified for inclusion in the study. The case review study involved the development of a Coding Scale for Custody Evaluations with Domestic Violence (DV) Allegations in order to rate the characteristics of the custody evaluations and the court outcomes. Raters coded each of the 69 cases in the case review sample with the Evaluation Coding Scale. The research team administered the Evaluator Survey (Part 2) to 14 custody evaluators who had completed evaluation reports for the cases in the Part 1 case review study